Drawings From the European Heartland Opens Jan. 10

An exhibition exploring the artistic achievements of a geographical area including what is now East and West Germany, Switzerland and Austria, as well as parts of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, comes to UC Santa Barbara’s University Art Museum on Jan. 10.

The show, “Central European Drawings, 1680-1800: A Selection From American Collections,� highlights a time when the region was united by a common past as the central area of the Holy Roman Empire, although divided into a number of states under a variety of rulers.

University Art Museum Director J. David Farmer said that the exhibition showcases “a little-known but splendid period of artistic achievement.�

“Literary, musical and philosophical giants, such as Kleist, Goethe, Winckelmann, Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart are familiar to most, but the (visual) artists have undeservedly remained in the shadow of their contemporaries in Italy and France,� Farmer said.

Included in the show, which runs through Feb. 25, are late Baroque and Rococo visions of such artists asthe Asam brothers, Matthaus Gunther and Franz Anton Maulbersch, as well as examples of the Romantic and Neo-Classical work of Johann Heinrich Fussli, Angelika Kauffman and Anton Rahael Mengs.

The show was organized by Princeton University professor Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, who will speak at the University Art Museum on Jan. 12.

THE QUEST: The Huntington Library during the month of January will host a series of free programs titled “Quest for the Renaissance: The Revival of Classical Antiquity, 1400-1600.� The programs will highlight some of the advances made in Europe during the great artistic and intellectual rebirth of the 15th and 16th centuries, with particular emphasis on the Renaissance arts of printing, bookmaking, music, poetry and painting. Scheduled programs include the following:

* “Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo,� a slide lecture on the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance, will be held Jan. 9 at 3 p.m.

* “The Book and the Library,� a slide lecture on the transition from manuscripts to printed books, and the role played by the printed word in the intellectual Renaissance in Europe, will be given Jan. 16 at 3 p.m.

* “Rebirth in Music,� a discussion on the impact of the revival of classical antiquity on the music of the Renaissance, will be held Jan. 23 at 3 p.m.

* “Gardens of the Renaissance,� a slide lecture on Renaissance gardens highlighting some of the plants that were favored in the 15th and 16th centuries and are still popular today, will be held Jan. 27 at 2:30 p.m.

“Poets, Letters and Musicians,� a presentation by the San Francisco Consort (in period costumes and with replica instruments), of music, literature and poetry of the Renaissance, will take place Jan. 30 at 3 p.m.